I have always used EVGA Precision to overclock my GPUs and to lock their fan speeds at 100%. But you can adjust them to whatever percentage you wish with it also.Happy is the person who shares their life with a cat. (Or two or three or........) =^.^=

I use the latest version of the Precision software since I have the 600 series card and can't use the older style of Precision, which I prefer for a number of reasons, and still use it on my non-600 series systems. One thing I don't like about the newest version is I can't set the fan speed to 100%, it is, for some reason that I haven't been able to get an answer to, locked to a max of 80%. I have been waiting for either a hack or an updated version to allow me to set whatever speed I want. From reading above, it still is an issue in the referenced software. Oh well, hopefully one of these days...

I use the latest version of the Precision software since I have the 600 series card and can't use the older style of Precision, which I prefer for a number of reasons, and still use it on my non-600 series systems. One thing I don't like about the newest version is I can't set the fan speed to 100%, it is, for some reason that I haven't been able to get an answer to, locked to a max of 80%. I have been waiting for either a hack or an updated version to allow me to set whatever speed I want. From reading above, it still is an issue in the referenced software. Oh well, hopefully one of these days...

It seems to be card related. I have a 570 on the older version of Precision and it has the same limitation...can set the 465 in that rig to 100%, but the 570 is limited to 85% maximum. I dunno if they are trying to extend the life of the fans, or what.Happy is the person who shares their life with a cat. (Or two or three or........) =^.^=

I use the latest version of the Precision software since I have the 600 series card and can't use the older style of Precision, which I prefer for a number of reasons, and still use it on my non-600 series systems. One thing I don't like about the newest version is I can't set the fan speed to 100%, it is, for some reason that I haven't been able to get an answer to, locked to a max of 80%. I have been waiting for either a hack or an updated version to allow me to set whatever speed I want. From reading above, it still is an issue in the referenced software. Oh well, hopefully one of these days...

It seems to be card related. I have a 570 on the older version of Precision and it has the same limitation...can set the 465 in that rig to 100%, but the 570 is limited to 85% maximum. I dunno if they are trying to extend the life of the fans, or what.

I use the Precision X software on both of my machines. Both have non-600 cards and I have had no problems controlling the fan speed to 100% via all three versions of the application. My current version is 3.03. Overclocking and such has to be done manually, and I don't think that EVGA will enhance the package to automatically do this in the older cards.

It seems to be card related. I have a 570 on the older version of Precision and it has the same limitation...can set the 465 in that rig to 100%, but the 570 is limited to 85% maximum. I dunno if they are trying to extend the life of the fans, or what.

Yes, Mark is right, My GTX560Ti does not allow me to set the fan speed over 80%, and on the GTX680 the max allowed speed is 85%, no mather what. But on the GT9500 I can set it at 100%.
On the 560Ti Ive tried with the nvidia tools which allows me to set it at 100% but when applied it reverts to 80%. With MSI afterburner it just shows 80% as the max possible value...
I guess that the reasson behind this is just that they are using the same "electronics" to control the fans on several different cards and then it may be that this device is able to manage higher speeds than the maximum safe/design value for the specific fan used.
Also, using a speed controller that is able to handle higher speeds than the reference fan used gives the vendors the option to provide OC/mod versions with faster fans without needing to change the base hardware...

By the way, Im not using the nVidia Tools to do all this because after installing it (some time ago) the nVidia Control pannel failed when I close it with a weird Data Execution Prevention error. I had to completely reinstall the drivers after unintalling the nVidia Tools to fix that issue...

Ahh, thank you for the info, it's probably a software limitation based upon which card it finds. Maybe there will be an unauthorized "enhancement" some day which would allow us to get the full RPM out of our cards fans. And Mark, you may be right, but I mean Come On. We're spending $400-1000 on a video card, wouldn't you think that they could go out and find some high precision designed fan with a MTBF of a million hours or more to put into these things? So they are $8-12 their cost, in quantity. I'd gladly pay about a tenspot more for the card to get my full fan speed and cooling ability not to mention piece of mind. This makes them look a bit cheesy to me. At least I know I can control the older cards with it, but it doesn't really matter, since I like the way the old one looks and works better anywho. Good to know though, thanks for the education guys!

We're spending $400-1000 on a video card, wouldn't you think that they could go out and find some high precision designed fan with a MTBF of a million hours or more to put into these things?

yes, they can, but then, what will be left to the other vendors?
How they will offer you expensive Overclocked/Premium/VIP cards if nVidia already pushed everything at the maximum in the reference cards?
Bussiness is an evil world... ;D

I wouldn't want to set any of my GPU fans to 100%, for sake of the life expectancy of the fans and the noise levels.

I've already had one GPU fan fail and another become noisy within 12 months, and that was running at auto speeds. I don't recall having a GPU fail because of overheating.

There may be little cooling benefit from 80-100%, perhaps some fans shift their maximum amount of air at 85% for example, anything above that is just more noise. Just a thought.

Aim for good system airflow to keep temps low if you can, rather than resort to maxing out your GPU fans to compensate for poor overall airflow.

One of my two Gigabyte GTX 670s in one rig for example has three fans, and they're running automatically at 50%, keeping the GPU temperature at 75 degrees which is fine I believe for these cards. Maxing out the fans will surely kill the fans quicker than I would kill the card by leaving the fans at auto? ;) (famous last words?!) :DBrian.

Aim for good system airflow to keep temps low if you can, rather than resort to maxing out your GPU fans to compensate for poor overall airflow.

Well, I'm pretty sure my airflow can't get any better, as I run all my SETI systems out in the open on a bench. The only thing I could possibly do is get a box fan blowing over them, but that would probably be overkill.. ;-)

Well, I'm pretty sure my airflow can't get any better, as I run all my SETI systems out in the open on a bench. The only thing I could possibly do is get a box fan blowing over them, but that would probably be overkill.. ;-)

Actually, a system set up like that can lack airflow, whereas a good case will push/pull air through the system and over the vital components.

I have a system set up out in the open on a bench, it has two graphics cards and it benefits from having a couple of case fans directing air at the top card and motherboard heatsinks. The room lacks good airflow though.Brian.